A WOMAN told a court how she attempted to perform the Heimlich maneuver on a man who choked to death on a train.

David Clark, 56, died after pieces of kebab meat became lodged in his throat as he travelled home from a football match on March 2 2019.

Mr Clark and his friend Jon Waite had been at the Lancaster FC v Farsley Celtic match and had been drinking in Lancaster before boarding the train back to Barrow shortly after 9pm.

They joined David Noble, 32, his sister Nicole Cavin, 22, and her boyfriend Daniel Shepard at a table on the packed carriage.

A group of 10 women, who had been celebrating a hen night, were also on the 21:04 service to Barrow.

One of the party, Hayley Burns, described how the train was packed and she moved around the carriage chatting to different members of the hen party.

She said: “Just as the train was approaching Silverdale I heard a loud bang.

“I looked around and saw a man lying on his left side. At first I thought he had passed out and people were putting him in the recovery position.

“Someone then shouted, ‘he’s choking!’

“I went up to the male and began to slap him on the back to dislodge whatever was choking him.

“As I was doing this a female was trying to scoop something out of his mouth. She checked his pulse.

“As the back slapping wasn’t working, me and Sophie Clarke between us lifted the man up and attempted the Heimlich maneuver but neither of us was strong enough to do it.

“A man called Patrick, who was much bigger and stronger than us, then unsuccessfully began to attempt the manoeuvre.

“I then went to check on my friends because I thought I would be more use calming people down than getting in the way of the people trying to help the man.”

The jury has been shown a piece of meat approximately the size of an egg, which was removed from Mr Clark’s throat.

The prosecution allege he choked to death after being “force fed” pieces of kebab meat by David Noble and Nicole Cavin.

Noble, of Main Street, Grange, and Cavin, of Market Street, Grange, deny manslaughter.